Short Stories in French for Intermediate Learners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn French the fun way! (Readers)

by Olly Richards

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young adult and adult intermediate learners of French.

Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!
- Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers

Short Stories in French for Intermediate Learners has been written especially for students from a low-intermediate to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to B1-B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you and give you a feeling of progress when reading.

Genres: France, Short Stories, Fiction, Language, Reference

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 13, 2021

Reviews

[Jane Orson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent book that really helps you put vocabulary in context and for seeing how grammar holds everything together. I was delighted to understand 99% of it. Good use of the imperfect and the subjunctive. I like the fact that you can read short sections at a time.

[Grant Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a much more challenging and enjoyable set of short stories than the beginner level book, without being so difficult to be off putting. The extra range of available words makes for more interesting stories. And I think this is a good transition to reading more complex French stories.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book helpful in improving my confidence with French reading. For reference, I am someone who did French immersion schooling, but have not used my French since.

In this book, there are 8 short stories in different genres with three chapters each. With each chapter, you are to read it once, and then read it a second time before answering the end-of-chapter quiz. Reading each chapter a second time is key to improving comprehension. That is something this book really helped me understand. There were times I felt frustrated having to re-read pages, but then I realized just how much detail I missed the first time around.

I would recommend this book to anyone having gone through French immersion schooling, but whose French is a little rusty today.

I am giving it 4 stars only because many of the genres weren't my cup of tea. Though, I do understand why they have multiple genres in the book!

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

i feel so happy being able to finish this book 🥹
much more entertaining short stories than the ones for beginners✨✨

[CKPineapple · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for intermediate learners! Each story is split into digestible chapters and I never found myself frustrated with being unable to follow what was happening in each section.

Favourite story? “Lé defi des monstres”

Favourite quote? “Et, Margot et toi, vous devriez vous remettre ensemble. Vous faites une bonne paire, tous les deux!”

[Liam Arne · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know what… this was actually so useful! I found the stories were surprisingly interesting and varied in genre. I think the chapter structure was nice and easy to process, and the advice to reread after the summary/vocab/quiz was spot on. Also much appreciate that the level was actually B1/B2!

[Kevan Houser · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good tool for someone working on improving their French reading skills. I'd recommend having completed the equivalent of a full-year college course and having a decent foundation in French grammar (all verb tenses) to fully enjoy and benefit from this book.

There are eight short stories in total, each divided into three short chapters. The content is varied, and, although fairly basic, seems designed to include all French verb tenses and a good deal of common expressions and idioms as well as a broad range of vocabulary.

The stories are simple but not overly childish. It's definitely not "literature," but I think it would be fairly enjoyable reading for someone not quite ready to tackle a typical French novel. To put it another way, reading these stories would move a learner closer to being able to read general French literature.

Each story is followed by a short glossary. (I found a couple of instances where a bold word in the story wasn't in the glossary as intended, but otherwise it was a useful feature.) Each chapter is also followed by a chapter summary (which I skipped) and a series of questions (which I also skipped).

Note: there is an answer key for those questions at the back of the book. I imagine those features (summaries and questions) might be geared towards use in a classroom setting.

Finally, there is a short French-English glossary at the very end, which I found a puzzling waste of space. Anyone to this point in their French studies surely has a dictionary already (or at least a free French dictionary app on their phone). The few times I searched for the meaning of a word in the stories, it wasn't one of the words in the glossary anyway, so it seems those pages could have been put to better use.

Disclaimer: Although I'm nowhere close to fluent in French, it is one of the languages I can read "normal" content in (i.e., a general novel, with the aid of a dictionary of course), so I may not be the target audience for this book. In fact, I wouldn't have purchased it except that I found it for fifty cents at a thrift shop.

At any rate, this is enjoyable light reading, and would help broaden most anyone's ability in reading French as an acquired language.

[Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

C’est un support utile pour ceux qui apprennent le français. Le vocabulaire est facile à comprendre mais pas trop simple. C’est parfait pour mon niveau actuel et j’ai appris beaucoup de mots grâce a ces histoires. Il y a des histoires de tous les genres, donc tu pourras apprendre un vocabulaire différent avec chaque histoire. En plus, j’ai pu me familiariser avec la structure de la grammaire française. Si tu as le niveau A2-B1, ce livre est une bonne ressource parce que tu pourrais apprendre de nouveau mots tout en ressentant un sentiment d’accomplissement. Ça te motiverai à continuer à lire les histoires suivantes et explorer des livres pour les natifs aussi. La raison pour laquelle je ne lui donnerai pas une note plus élevée, c’est que les histoires sont un peu clichées et ils ne sont pas suffisamment intéressant pour retenir l’attention d’élèves plus avancés. Si tu cherches des histoires uniques et captivantes, tu risques de t’ennuyer. Je pense aussi que l’auteur pourrait mieux choisir les mots surlignés parce que certains mots étaient très basiques ou similaires aux mots en anglais. Je pense aussi que l’auteur pourrais adapter les histoires à la culture française. Même si quelques personnages ont des noms français ou viennent d’un pays francophone, c’est évident que les histoires sont seulement une traduction d’un texte en anglais et ne reflètent pas la société française. Pour moi, c’est une occasion manquée de montrer la culture française á travers les histoires. En fin de compte, c’est un bon livre pour commencer à lire en français, mais si tu cherches des textes plus interessants et profonds, je te recommande commencer avec des livres écrit en français pour les enfants.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Language: French
Difficulty (vocabulary): B1
Difficulty (story): A2

Although the book is marked as "B1-B2", I would mark it as flat B1, since the French is still relatively simple and the difficulty bump from the Short Stories in French for Beginners is fairly small.

The book includes 8 stories, each of which has 3 parts. Every part contains a vocabulary list and a couple questions to verify that you paid attention (understood the text). 

As a little comment on the vocabulary list, some words that are kind of obvious are translated (sensible, applaudir, se disputer), yet some that are actually more difficult are not. 

In terms of the story, they are not award-winning stories, but they don't bore you as well. They are short, so you finish them pretty quickly, and the point is that you learn something!

I love the concept, and I appreciate that somebody took the time to put up stories that are around a certain level. I look forward to more! 

Un peu plus tard, le téléchargement des données débutait. Les médecins ont commencé à transférer les informations lentement de Titan 2055 jusqu'à mon cerveau... Les informations étaient nouvelles mais il me semblait que j'avais toutes ces connaissances depuis longtemps... L'ordinateur me transmettait différents types de données: des maths, de l'histoire, des sciences, des mots en langues étrangères... Il y en avait pour tous les goûts!

(Mon ami le super-ordinateur)

[John Vanderslice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curious book. As opposed to little prose essays about French life, this one tries to grab and hold your attention with longer, three-part fictional stories, very genre-based: sci-fi, western, spy thriller, horror (kind of), paranormal (kind of), as well as a couple of realistic ones. I admire the author’s willingness to throw himself into different genres. Of course the point is to learn some French while you read the stories, and you do. Every chapter is followed by a short summary (in French) and there is a glossary for each story as well. I think it’s a useful volume. Intermediate French is a fair description of the language level required.

[Rafaela Lomba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acheté à Hastings, Angleterre. J’essaie toujours d’améliorer mon français, maintenant plus que jamais à cause de mon travail.

J’ai aimé l’idée de lire des histoires, apprendre le vocabulaire, et faire un petit quiz à la fin. Malheureusement, j’ai trouvé quelques nouvelles un peu ennuyeuses.

J’ai appris plusieurs mots et expressions, mais je dois faire quelque chose pour les mémoriser. C’était aussi une expérience valorisante pour moi parce que j’ai compris presque tout (95%). C’est bien dommage qu’il n’y a pas un livre pour le niveau avancé ou plus d’exercices. Ça serait plus exigeant pour moi.

[Thomas Andrikus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories in A2-B1 level French.

There is one story that I skipped, which is Une ville horrible. That story is not interesting at all because it tries to introduce so many characters and Star Wars-ish universe within a span of three pages, even though I know that the whole story would end in merely three short chapters…

I tried reading more than a few pages of that particular story thrice, but just couldn’t get interested to find out more.

The rest of the stories are very interesting, though!

[Bertie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended if you're learning French. Stories were just the right length for me, with glossaries to save my from having to constantly look up words on my phone and handy chapter summaries (in French). Good balance of both challenging and rewarding. Sure, the literature content isn't going to win a Booker prize, but it serves its purpose of conveying the language (including useful idioms and common turns of phrase) very well.

[Imaduddin Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best set of stories, but the vocab and grammar are well suited for a B1 level. For the initial chapters, I struggled a bit, but was reading much more fluently towards the end. Effective method.

[Lasse Carlsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Les histoires ne sont trop géniaux mais ils son bons pour apprendre les mots nouveaux et améliorer son compréhension de français écrit. Bonnes notes pour la varieté des genres - western, terror, comédie, romance etc.

[coldcabbage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories were engaging and well-written! Brought me back to my childhood fantasies. Some were very strange and I failed to see how the language could be considered everyday vocabulary. But I’ll give another star because it’s French.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for learners who have B1-B2 levels but I find some of the stories a bit childish and uninteresting. Good book to learn new vocabulary and some expressions though.

[4nlady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great way to learn more French… love the short stories with questionnaires at the end to test your comprehension!!!

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid book in the StoryLearning series of Olly Richards! Definitely feeling my reading comprehension is getting stronger!

[Hallie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il y a beaucoup des mots qui on peut utiliser jour de jour

[Herald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Total Silwok Death, Total Monster Death

[Otis Carmichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serves its purpose, was pleasantly surprised by some of the stories and enjoyed being able to flick between chapter glossaries.

[Em Heuven]

Dont have an opinion was for keeping up French by myself

[Chandel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7

[SnowDevil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although there is little literary value here, the writing is more fluid and the topics a bit more nuanced in this collection of stories than in the Danish beginner version. Perhaps it's because the author speaks French more fluently than Danish - or perhaps the Intermediate level made him feel free-er to use more advanced (and therefore more natural-sounding) sentence structures. Not being a native speaker myself, I can't evaluate whether the writing appropriately used colloquial phrases - some seemed a little formal or old-fashioned based on what I've learned, but probably still understandable by native speakers. As with the Danish version, most of the stories were designed to introduce vocabulary in context and were less concerned with being engaging or having clever meaningful twists. At the end of most of them I felt like face-palming - the endings were either incredibly obvious or so inconsequential that one questioned why one bothered reading the story at all (aside from the vocabulary of course). That said, I did learn some new vocabulary, and it was a relatively easy way for me to get some contextual French practice outside of drills and workbooks.

[Methlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay

Some of the stories were great and others I didn’t even want to finish and I skipped them but overall it’s worth a purchase to improve French reading.

[ChrissieP · Rating 4 out of 5]

My French vocabulary improved as well as my comprehension. These were fun stories, good dialogue and entertaining plots.

[Ivanna]

después de mil años, lo terminé y obvio no lo voy a puntuar

[Ola Jakubus · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was great for learning but I must admit the stories weren’t very entertaining. I would definitely give it five stars if the stories were actually worth reading.

[Daryl Beckett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, C’est bof.